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Saturday, 22 May 2010

Kudos: The Herald News, Fall River, Massachusetts

Dear Mike,

I found your reference to Alex Garcia's opinion about using promos [last paragraph of this post —Ed.] particularly interesting. My newspaper, The Herald News, in Fall River, Mass., currently has a branding campaign going. Originated by Publisher Sean Burke, our motto is: 'Reality. Delivered Daily.' The large house ads carry one of one of (mostly) my page one photos big, and a smaller file of the top half of that front page, along with the slogan. The back end of that campaign is a series of posters featuring Herald News employees, and a quote about their jobs at the paper. The headline for these is 'Our Reality. Delivered Daily.' The posters will replace the first set of house ads and run as a series.

At the outset of this campaign, my Editor In Chief asked if I would be a subject, and I agreed. The other photog, however, needed surgery and was out for six weeks. So, I asked my 'little' brother (he's 52), Jay Foley, to shoot me. He's an accomplished photographer and part-time pro. The poster is attached. I'm not sure it's about anything but me being old. But, after busting my chops long enough, all my colleagues admit that they like it. And no, I did not cover the Lizzie Borden trial.

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

Nice! It's good for people to be reminded that things like news photos don't just appear, but are actually created by someone. Often someone with long and hard professional experience, sometimes at considerable personal risk, and that's why they're newsworthy. It's stunning how unaware most people are about where things like writing, photography, and music come from and who the people are that are responsible for their creation.

Seth writes: " It's stunning how unaware most people are about where things like writing, photography, and music come from and who the people are that are responsible for their creation."

Heck, most people are just unaware. I remember what one of my editors told me when I got excited about my first byline in the paper- "Don't get too excited, most folks will never notice it. Hell, most people can't even seem to read the "USE OTHER DOOR" sign at Nelson's Jack & Jill, they just stand there pulling on the damn door!"

I refrained from comment when this topic first was broached. But now I see a TOP reader feeling encouraged to contact an editor (of a publication that person doesn't even read, no less). Yikes.

Before I rant, a few caveats, disclaimers, etc... News people generally work hard. They put themselves in potentially dangerous situations. They spend long hours doing what they do. Some recognition for those efforts is deserved.

But let's view this self-promotion trend in a broader context. Newspapers are experiencing historic financial trouble, perhaps not at the same level as a year ago, but still in an unprecedented period. Like the newsroom where I work, staffing levels everywhere have been eviscerated to preserve the bottom line.

The solution to these ills? Some snappy advertisements featuring what staff remains. Some "brand building." That seems to me like a waste of greatly diminished resources with an even more disturbing undercurrent. A traditional role of news organizations has been to cut through these types of diversions to get to the heart of the matter -- not create them.

I'm oversimplifying a bit, but the message here is obvious. The content is no longer strong enough to speak for itself, so the work must be promoted some other way. Seth laments how unaware people are of content creators. I think most people just don't want to know, and I'm fine with that. Frankly, when it comes to information of the type presented in a newspaper, it shouldn't matter who created it.

Matt says: "Frankly, when it comes to information of the type presented in a newspaper, it shouldn't matter who created it."

I agree totally. I'm making a different point (I hope). I feel that people ought to be educated in what other people do in order for all of us to respect each other. Yes, I'm that naive. I've been a studio musician for thirty-some years and even my mother has no idea what I do. Many of the financial folks who live in my neighborhood ask me what I "really" do. It's much easier to steal music, pictures, words, and the like if you've never met anyone who actually makes a living and sends kids to college doing it. The fact is I don't know what financial people do all day long. The inability to see interrelatedness in a society doesn't seem healthy.

It's also great to see a company giving public recognition to their most valued employees (and believing that their employees are highly valued). This is something that isn't totally common nowadays in modern corporations...